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Title: Observation of Turbulent-Driven Shear Flow in a Cylindrical Laboratory Plasma Device

Journal Article · · Physical Review Letters
; ; ; ; ; ;  [1]
  1. Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, University of California San Diego, 9500 Gilman Drive, La Jolla, California 92093-0417 (United States)

An azimuthally symmetric radially sheared plasma fluid flow is observed to spontaneously form in a cylindrical magnetized helicon plasma device with no external sources of momentum input. A turbulent momentum conservation analysis shows that this shear flow is sustained by the Reynolds stress generated by collisional drift turbulence in the device. The results provide direct experimental support for the basic theoretical picture of drift-wave-shear-flow interactions.

OSTI ID:
20777234
Journal Information:
Physical Review Letters, Vol. 96, Issue 19; Other Information: DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.96.195002; (c) 2006 The American Physical Society; Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 0031-9007
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English